All That Glitters
by Ace of Gallifrey
Summary: Alternate end to Doomsday, and continuing from there. Rose is rescued, but not by Pete Tyler...  Can the Doctor and Rose save Donna Noble's life while caring for an off-kilter newcomer? ON HIATUS
1. From Beyond the Void

**Title-** All That Glitters**  
Characters-** Ten, Rose, Romana IV**  
Rating-** K+**  
Summary- **Alternate end to Doomsday, and continuing from there. Rose is rescued, but not by Pete Tyler...

**A/N-** Okay, alright, I know. I'm horrible. I should be working on my Jenny fics. But honestly, I would rather write good fic that I'm inspired for than crank out generic, poorly-written chapters for something I'm (temporarily, I promise) blocked on. And with this plot bunny gnawing on my leg and refusing to let go... well, you see where that's going, right?

* * *

_"__You gotta be stronger than the story,  
Don't let it blind you."  
-The Killers_

* * *

"Once the breach collapses, that's _it_!" the Doctor half-shouted, shaking Rose's shoulders, trying to drive home how deadly serious this was. "You will never be able to see her again, your own mother!"

Rose stared into his eyes, defiant and gentle at the same time. "I made my choice a long time ago and I'm never gonna leave you," she said softly.

They were words he'd heard before. So many times, they promised him forever. So many friends, all thinking they could save him, somehow. One by one, they had all slipped away. Some died. Some chose to get out before this life of his had the chance to kill them. Some, he sent away, as he had just tried to do for Rose. Even Ace, brilliant, impossible, rough-around-the-edges Ace, had flown away on wings of her own in the end.

The words of the Beast came back to him. _"The Valiant Child, who will die in battle so very soon..."_

He didn't know how he could stand to lose her. After Gallifrey was lost, he was so disoriented, the silence in the back of his mind where the Time Lords used to be nearly overwhelming him. It was like losing a sense he hadn't even known he possessed, but which he relied on utterly. Rose had filled the silence with chatter. The empty place was still there, but he didn't really notice it. Without her, that void was sure to be back, so much more empty than the blank space to which he was about to condemn his enemies.

Time wove itself into patterns before his eyes, and he could see Rose falling, dropping away from him into the Void. It was only one possibility among many, but it terrified him.

Before he could say anything, the computer interrupted.

_Systems rebooted. Open access._

He blinked. "Those coordinates, set them all to six," he said, voice roughening with fear. "And hurry up!"

She rushed immediately to the computer and began doing as he instructed. A few seconds later, he heard a beep. "We've got Cybermen on the way up," she warned him.

"How many floors down?" he demanded, crossing to her and peering over her shoulder at the monitor.

"Just one," Rose breathed, and she sounded terrified. He wondered if she regretted her decision to stay.

Suddenly, though, the Cybermen on the monitor collapsed, struck down by their own energy weapons. The Doctor didn't stay to watch what had happened. He had work to do. He flew to the other terminal and punched in the last few equations.

_Levers operational,_ the computer chirped. He grinned. This just might work.

"That's more like it, bit of a smile!" Rose commented. "The old team."

"Hope and glory, Mutt and Jeff, shiver and shake!"

"Which one's shiver?"

"Oh, I'm shake," he said with a Very, Very Serious expression on his face. He hoisted the second magnaclamp into her hands, then hurtled for the far wall. He attached his magnaclamp, then glanced over his shoulder to see how Rose was doing. She had placed her clamp against the wall, but seemed confused about what to do next. "Hit the red button!" he told her impatiently. She did as told, and he hurried to finish his instructions. "Once it starts, you hold on tight! It shouldn't be too bad for us, but the Daleks and Cybermen are stepped in Void-stuff. You ready?"

Rose looked away from him, and a look of abject terror crossed her face. "So are they," she breathed, looking out the window, where a quartet of Daleks were speeding toward them.

"Let's do it!" he shouted, and as one, they pushed the levers forward.

The Doctor seized the handle of the magnaclamp, looping his arm through and locking in his grip as tight as he possibly could. As he did so, the first four Daleks were sucked through the window, smashing in the glass in the process and flying past, screaming in panic. "The breach is open! Into the Void, ha!" he cried over the roar of the abyss. He had to admit... he was enjoying this. Daleks and Cybermen streamed through, vanishing in a blaze of light as they disappeared into nothingness.

He knew what was going to happen a split second before it did.

The Genesis Ark slammed into the lever on Rose's side, knocking it out of position.

_Offline_, the computer said cheerfully.

Rose gasped, and to his horror, he could _see_ what was coming, he could see her terrified eyes locked on his own as she fell toward the breach... She reached for the lever, but she couldn't reach. Before his eyes, she let go of the clamp and jumped to the lever, struggling to push it back into place.

"I've gotta get it up straight!" she shouted.

She pulled, but the suction of the breach was too great, and she slipped around to the opposite side of the lever. With great difficulty, she locked her feet against the bolt that held the lever in place and forced it upright.

_Online, and locked_, the computer announced.

The Daleks and Cybermen were long gone, but the breach was still open, not ready to close until it was done dragging the remnants of the Void-stuff in and around Torchwood back within itself. Rose swung outward, pulled toward the Void, and the Doctor saw her lose her grip long before her fingers even started to slip.

And then the timelines he was seeing came into play, and she was falling away from him. He might have screamed her name. He wasn't sure.

Suddenly, another figure appeared, just beyond the glowing curtain that composed the breach. Moving in slow motion, as if struggling against a fierce pressure, the figure dragged itself out of the Void and into real space. He just had time to see dark eyes widen and then Rose fell against the newcomer and they both tumbled to the ground. Together they were pulled back along the ground, they were nearly at the edge-

The breach sealed itself.

Dropping his hold on the magnaclamp, the Doctor sprinted the length of the hall. By the time he had reached her, Rose was on her feet, and she threw her arms around his neck, clinging to him tightly.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

He felt her nod. "I'm fine. I'm... I'm good. Close shave, yeah?"

"Yeah, I... Rose, let me go, I need to-"

She dropped her arms from him, and part of him picked up on a feeling of hurt radiating from her, but he was too preoccupied with the figure lying on the ground to worry. Rose's hurt feelings would heal. He knelt beside the woman, for it was in fact a woman. She was wearing scarlet and gold robes that, though tattered and stained, had clearly once been very fine. The outfit was completed by an elaborate headdress that rose up to frame her face in tarnished bronze. Her face bore a thousand care-worn lines, her short-cropped black hair was streaked with silver and as her eyes crept open, he saw that they were a steely gray, and suddenly, bitingly familiar...

The pieces snapped into place.

"It _can't_ be," he said to himself.

"Who is she?" Rose asked, kneeling down beside him.

The woman blinked, and raised a hand to touch her own face. "The Void ages you, it seems," she mumbled weakly.

"How can you possibly exist? How did you survive in the Void?" the Doctor asked.

He didn't get an answer immediately, as her face contorted in apparent, but silent, agony. Those disconcerting icy eyes slammed shut for a few moments. When she opened them again, her gaze was unfocused and she was obviously still in terrible pain. "If you find out, let me know, will you? I'm right curious myself..." she said in a crackling whisper.

Realizing what was coming, the Doctor grabbed Rose and pulled her back to a safe distance, just in case. She had always been good at this, but he knew from experience that control was tricky if you were busy focusing on not dying...

Silver light rippled outward from the woman's body, cascading across her and obscuring her from view. It was more graceful than the Doctor's own regenerations, still violent and probably excruciatingly painful, but significantly less... explosive.

"What the hell-?" Rose whispered. "Doctor, what's happening?"

"She's regenerating," he told her in a carefully emotionless voice.

"But I thought that was a Time Lord thing..." she began, before the realization hit her very suddenly.

As Rose fell silent, the regeneration process came to a close.

The Time Lady opened brand new eyes.

* * *

**A/N-** I am not above begging for reviews!


	2. Romanadvoratrelundar

**A/N-** I know I already thanked most of you individually, but I also want to send out a group thanks. So... thank you for your lovely reviews! I'm so glad to hear from all of you!

* * *

_"She lives in a fairytale,  
Somewhere too far for us to find.  
Forgotten the taste and smell  
Of a world that she left behind."  
-Paramore_

* * *

The Time Lady's new eyes opened and she blinked twice. The Doctor returned to her side and took her wrist, checking her pulse. Satisfied that her hearts were beating normally, he looked at her.

Gone was the withered old woman. In her place lay a tiny girl who appeared no older than thirty or thirty-five to human eyes. Her previous regeneration had been tall and curvaceous once upon a time, and the new petit body was swimming in the old red robes. She had dark blonde hair that lay in thick curls around her shoulders. Her nose was small and pointed, and her eyes, as she focused blearily on his face, were a deep pacific blue. Post-regeneration shock had purged her face of blood, making her fair skin almost translucent. Her skin was still smudged with soot.

She looked at him for a long moment. "You're the Doctor, aren't you?" she asked, sounding faraway.

"That's me," he said. "Can you tell me your name?" The elaborate carvings on her headdress suggested an answer, but he wasn't going to jump to conclusions.

"Yes," she said firmly. Then she giggled, and said no more.

Rose was standing very still, staring down at the two of them. "Doctor, what on Earth is going on?" she asked. "Who is she?"

"She's a Time Lord, one of my people," he said.

The woman nodded vigorously in response to this statement as she struggled to sit up. He assisted her.

On wobbly knees, and with rather a lot of help from the Doctor, the Time Lady got to her feet. "That sounds right," she said, straightening up and brushing off his hands. The robes of state hung lose on her, making her appear even more waif-like than her diminutive size already did, and pooling on the floor, with the toes of her bare feet peeping out from underneath.

"It's all a tad fuzzy at the moment... Hello, who are you?" she asked, suddenly addressing Rose.

"I'm, uh, Rose Tyler," the younger blonde said, very obviously unsure how to behave.

The Time Lady smiled brightly. "Lovely to meet you, I'm sure. I'm Romanar... Romanadvit... Romo... Romani... I'm Fred."

Then she fell forward, saved only from landing heavily on the floor by the Doctor's restraining hand.

"Post-regeneration trauma," he said grimly. "We'd better get her to the TARDIS." Ever so delicately, he slid a hand behind 'Fred's' knees and lifted her body with ease. "Let's go, Rose." He gave her a reassuring look that did anything but with the worry in his eyes so apparent. Nevertheless, she followed him out of the control room and through the hallways to where the TARDIS stood in huge, echoing warehouse.

Rose ran ahead and pushed open the TARDIS door so that the Doctor wouldn't have to struggle with the lock. As he stepped inside the ship, the central console flared up in an unexpected warm glow, and Rose heard a soft chiming.

"What's that noise?" she asked curiously.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder at her and there was a smile on his lips. "She's acknowledging Romana, I think," he said. "It's been awhile since she's had another Time Lord on board." Then he started moving again, striding unerringly toward the medical bay. Rose followed after him, confusion prickling at him.

When they reached the med-bay, the Doctor lay his burden down on one of the high beds and turned on a scanner. A soft blue light that seemed to emanate from nowhere enveloped the body of the Time Lady, shifting and swirling around her for a few minutes. Then the light vanished and the screen above the bed started showing a pattern of interlocking circles, the complex written form of Gallifreyan speech. The Doctor studied the symbols for a few moments, brainy specs firmly in place. Then he seemed to relax.

"She'll be alright. The regeneration seems to have repaired all the damage spending so much time in the Void must have taken on her body. She'll just sleep for now. Probably be right as rain in a few hours! Bet you never thought you'd see the day when you'd come out of a regeneration as poorly off as me, eh?" he said, poking her shoulder teasingly. She didn't respond, but the Doctor seemed satisfied.

Rose moved from her place by the door and came to stand beside him. "Doctor, who is she?"

He didn't look up from the sleeping face of the Time Lady, studying her intently as if trying to memorize her new features. "Her name is Romanadvoratrelundar," he said. "Romana for short, but the last time I saw her, she didn't go by that nickname anymore. She was... well, she was a lot of things. She was my friend, for a very long time. The only friend of my own species I'd had since I was just a kid, if I'm honest. Only Time Lord who'd put up with me. She, uh, she left eventually, though. Stayed behind to help a race known as the Tharils free themselves from slavery. The next time I saw her, she was president of Gallifrey."

The Doctor glanced up at Rose at last and flashed her a distracted smile. "It was the oddest thing. The President and the outcast, such good friends. I suppose everyone else thought she was mad, associating with someone like me. If nothing else, it was a black mark against her political record." He paused, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Then again, she was never in it for the politics. She honestly believed she could do some good, make a change. First time Gallifrey had an honest politician in six million years, I think."

Rose nodded, feeling unsettled for reasons she couldn't quite pinpoint. "And now she's here."

"Yes. Now she's here."

"But... how? You said everyone died in the Time War," Rose asked.

The Doctor chewed his lip, staring thoughtfully into space. "I have a theory," he said. "When Gallifrey was destroyed, the forces involved were titanic. It's possible that a portal to the Void was opened somehow, and she fell through it before the planet was ripped apart. But to survive that kind of non-existence for so long, let alone having the strength to force her way out through the breach... I can't imagine how that would even be possible. Then again, I learned a long time ago that with Romana, just about anything is possible. If she can spend twenty years imprisoned by the Daleks, tortured all that time, and come out the other side with her sanity intact..."

"Can't even imagine," Rose said softly, shuddering at the thought.

He sighed. "No point in us standing here. She'll be asleep for hours, I imagine." He brushed imaginary dust off his hands and turned to examine Rose properly, noting for the first time how pale she looked. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked, suddenly concerned.

She nodded. "Yeah, I-I'm fine. I just... well, I didn't say a very goodbye to Mum and the others. But like I said, I made my own choice," she hastened to add, when the Doctor's expression turned guilty.

Even as she spoke, though, the guilty look was whisked away and a thoughtful expression replaced it. "You know... I just might have a way to fix that," he said. "Come on Rose, up and away!" He grabbed her hand and out of the med-bay at top speed, sprinting for the console room.

* * *

Jackie Tyler rarely remembered her dreams. On this occasion, however, the memories stuck with her vividly. Two voices calling her, crying out her name. The Doctor's voice so loud and clear, guiding the call, but underneath his words, she could hear a just a whisper of her beloved daughter's voice. With her new husband and Mickey Smith in tow, she followed the commands of the whispered words in her head, stubbornly insisting on a trip to Norway.

As they drove over the Long Bridge that had been constructed between Britain and the continent, Jackie couldn't help but reflect on the differences between this world and the one she had left behind. The technology was better here. It had taken some getting used to, but she definitely _could_ get used to all the additional luxuries, she had decided. As for Pete... well, he was different. He was a snappy dresser, and he had a commanding, authoritative air about him that the Pete she remembered had never quite mastered. But underneath, he was still the sweet, slightly bumbling man she had fallen in love with so many years ago. Jackie remembered how he had held her as she cried every night for all those weeks after Rose disappeared forever, how he had kissed her gently on the forehead and rubbed her back and held her hand in the dark, how the shy kisses had eventually turned to more...

"It's here!" Jackie exclaimed, suddenly very sure of the fact, so sure that it had jerked her out of her thoughts.

They were on the shore in Norway. _Darlig Ulv Stranden_, the sign at the head of the beach proclaimed.

Jackie ran out onto the sand, with Pete right behind her and Mickey following, after an ungraceful tumble out of the back of the vehicle. Jackie looked around wildly, but saw nothing. For a long moment she stood there. "Rose!" she called. "Rose, are you here, Sweetheart?"

"I don't think anyone's here, Jacks," Pete said, putting a supporting arm around her waist.

"No!" Jackie insisted. "The dream said! Rose told me!" Pete attempted to steer her away, but she refused to go.

At that moment, a spectre-like image of Rose shimmered into being a few feet down the sand. Jackie gasped.

"Hello, Mum," Rose said softly.

"Rose!" the older woman choked, tears welling up in her eyes. "Sweetheart, are you alright? You look like a ghost!"

Rose glanced down at herself, then shook her head at the silliness of the gesture. "Doctor," she called to someone the three on the beach couldn't see. "Can you clear up the image a little?" A moment later, her image solidified. "Turns out there was just one last little crack left between the two universes," she explained. "It's about to close, but the Doctor found a way to project an image through, so I can say a proper goodbye."

Jackie stepped forward, reaching for her daughter.

"You can't touch me," Rose said, blinking hard to push back tears. "I'm still just a projection. So, then. What've you been up to?"

"I... well, I'm pregnant," Jackie said softly. "You're gonna be a big sister, and you're never gonna meet him!" She broke down, crying.

Rose reached out as if to touch her, but she knew it would do no good and so let her hand fall. "It'll be alright," she promised. "You'll be alright. You'll have Dad this time. And Mickey'll be the best big brother anybody could have- won't you Mickey?"

The young man nodded, a grim smile on his face. "You bet, Rose."

"And you know I'll always miss you," Rose went on. "But it's alright. I've got a life of my own now. I've got the Doctor."

"Oh Rose, promise me you'll stay safe," Jackie implored, tears running down her face.

Her daughter smiled. "The Doctor will take care of me. He always does." She turned, and appeared to be listening to something none of the others could hear. She looked back at the trio on the other side and gave a sad smile, tears sparkling in her eyes. "We haven't got a lot of time. The gap's just about to close. Mum, I love you."

"And I love you."

"Mickey, Dad, I-"

The image faded away to nothing.

* * *

Back on the TARDIS, the tears Rose had tried to hold back while the other universe was still visible fell, and the Doctor couldn't help but pull her into a hug, letting her cry on his chest. For several minutes the pair of them stood there, Rose letting out her grief. Then, she straightened up and wiped her eyes. The Doctor let her go and turned to head for the console, but stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of a tall bride standing just inside the door.

"What?" he demanded.

The woman turned to face them and the look in her eyes was deadly. "Who are you?" she asked. "Where am I?"

"What?" the Doctor asked again.

"What the hell is this place?"

Rose bit her lip to keep from grinning at the Doctor's flabbergasted expression.


	3. Donna Noble

**A/N-** Gotta tell you, I am LOVING this fic. I'm having difficulty writing it, for some reason, but I think that's an old-fashioned case of writer's block, and I have so many plot twists writing themselves in my head which I'm just _desperate_ to get out... oh, it's _gorgeous_, just this great big tapestry of win. I haven't been this excited since I started my second novel!

And just for the record, I think Donna is always TOTALLY justified when she slaps the Doctor. ALWAYS.

* * *

_"Look around, the writing's on the wall  
Don't you think we're all feeling crazed  
In a world, where nothing's as it seems__"_  
_-The Calling_

* * *

"You can't do that! I wasn't... We're in flight, that is physically impossible! How did-?" the Doctor stuttered, completely nonplussed.

"Tell me where I am! I demand you tell me _right now_ where am I?" the bride shouted.

"Inside the TARDIS."

"The what?"

"The TARDIS."

"The what?"

"The TARDIS, it's called a TARDIS."

"That's not even a proper word! You're just saying things!"

"How did you get in here?" the Doctor asked, adjusting a few controls to stabilize the slight rocking the time ship had taken up.

Rose chose this moment to jump into the conversation. "Oh, Doctor, leave her alone! Can't you see she's terrified?" It was true. The redheaded woman in white, for all her shouting and bluster, was clearly just barely keeping it together. Rose could see her lower lip quivering just the slightest bit, just for a moment, before the woman shook off the betrayal of emotion in favor of the angry mask once more.

"And who are you lot, then?" she said.

Rose smiled. "I'm Rose. This is the Doctor. What's your name?"

"Donna. But I suppose you knew that. Did Nerys put you up to this? Oh my god, she did, didn't she? She's finally got me back!"

"We haven't done anything!" Rose protested.

"Oh, I just _bet_!" Donna spat, turning on her heel and marching toward the doors.

"Wait a minute!" Rose and the Doctor shouted simultaneously, but it was too late. Donna had hurled the TARDIS doors open and stopped dead, staring out into the dying flare of the supernova they were orbiting.

"We're in space," the Doctor explained. "Outer space. This is my, uh, space ship. She's called a TARDIS."

Donna looked out, apparently too shocked to speak for a moment. When she had recovered her voice, she asked, "How are we breathing?"

"That's the TARDIS," Rose said. "It's creating an atmosphere for us."

The Doctor glanced at her, vaguely irritated at her choice of pronouns. Rose should know better than anyone that the TARDIS was a she. But now wasn't the time to be thinking of such things. "Are you human?" he asked, addressing Donna.

"Yeah. That optional?"

"It is with me," he muttered, half to himself.

"You lot are aliens," Donna said in a stunned voice.

"Well, he is, anyway," Rose interjected. "I'm human."

Donna shook her head, apparently processing, and remained silent for several moments, just staring out into the vastness of space. Finally, she roused herself. "It's freezing with these doors open," she said in a half-spiteful, half-shell shocked tone.

The Doctor threw said doors closed and raced back to the console. "Now, see, I don't understand," he said. "I don't understand anything. This- this can't happen! There is no way a human being can lock itself onto the TARDIS and transport itself inside! There must be something..." He ignored the TARDIS' sarcastic remark about _Now_ who was using the wrong pronouns and grabbed a handheld examination glass, peering at her through it. "Maybe some sort of subatomic connection? Something in the temporal field? Maybe something pulling you into alignment with the chronon shell? Maybe it's something macrobinding your DNA with the anterior matrix? Maybe a genetic st-"

His rant was cut off when she slapped him.

"Oi, there's no call for that!" Rose shouted. "Don't go hitting him!"

"What was that for?" the Doctor said, rubbing his injured cheek and glaring at her.

"_Get me to the church!_" Donna yelled.

Rose clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh, of course, you're getting married!" she exclaimed. "Go on then, where's the church?"

"Saint Mary's, Haven Road, Chiswick, London, England, Earth, The solar system!"

"Well there's no need to be _that_ specific," Rose muttered under her breath. "Ya could've just stopped at London."

"Oi, Peroxide, don't be all snippy with me," Donna said in a dangerous tone. "You're not the one late for your own wedding!"

The Doctor chose that moment to interrupt. "_Right_ then, _anyway_," he said, with the air of one trying desperately to ward off a cat fight. "Chiswick!" He pointed to the doors.

Donna sprinted for the exit. "I said Saint Mary's!" her voice came from outside. "What sort of Martian are you? Where's this?"

"Oh, stop your moaning. The fact that we're even in Chiswick means he managed to land a lot nearer the goal than he usually does," Rose said. "We can't be far, you can get a taxi."

Donna, though, was busy staring at the TARDIS. She walked all around it, pressing her hands to the wooden panels, before finally coming back to the front and poking her head in through the doors. She gaped at the room inside, then pulled back, hands clasped over her gaping mouth. She turned on her heel and sprinted away.

Rose shook her head. "Newbies," she muttered.

"Donna!" the Doctor shouted, coming pelting out from the interior of the TARDIS. He stopped and rocked back on his heels, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Rose, can you go and-?" He waved in Donna's general direction. "There's something wrong with the TARDIS, like she's recalibrating. I need to..."

"Yeah, sure."

Rose easily caught up with the fleeing bride in her impractical heels. "Come on, come back to the TARDIS," she wheedled.

"I'm not going back in that box, it's just too weird in there!"

Rose smirked. "It's bigger on the inside. What's weird about that?"

"Well, plenty of things. I'm sure Newton would have a fit, for starters," the older woman said snappishly, and glanced at her watch. "Oh, ten past three, I'm gonna miss it!"

"I told you, you can get a cab. Come on." She looked over her shoulder and yelled back down the alley they had come up, "Doctor! I'm going to get Donna a cab! Meet us up at the church, yeah?"

A muffled reply seemed to indicate that he had heard her.

Rose flagged down a taxi quickly, and the pair of them climbed inside.

"Saint Mary's in Chiswick, just off Haven Road," Donna told the cabbie. "It's an emergency, I'm getting married!"

"It's gonna cost you, sweetheart, the rates are double today."

A horrified look crossed the bride's face. "Oh god... I haven't got any money! No pockets!" she gestured to her gown. "Have you got any?"

Rose reached in her pockets and came up empty, just her mobile. "Haven't really spent a lot of time on Earth lately," she said apologetically.

Literally seconds later, they had been forcibly expelled from the cab.

"Here, take my phone, call your family or your fiance or whoever, let them know we're on our way, alright?" Rose said, handing off the phone.

Donna seized the mobile and dialed, clutching it desperately to her ear. After a long second, she groaned. "Oh, pick up the phone! Mum, get off the phone and listen, I'm in... Oh my god, I dunno where I am! It's a street, and there's... W. H. Smith... but it's definitely Earth! Listen, I'm trying to get back, but I haven't got any money, so it might take me awhile to get back... I... oh, I've got to go. I'll be there soon!"

Rose took her phone back and looked around. "Now, let's see... I think we're... where are we?" She tried to get her bearings, looking around for a street sign. By the time she had located one, Donna had managed to borrow £10 from a stranger and hailed a taxi.

Without missing a beat, Rose jumped into the cab behind her.

"Oi, what do you think you're doing? You're not coming to my wedding!" Donna shouted. "You're the reason I'm gonna bloody miss it!"

"The Doctor thinks there's something odd about you," Rose said. "You did something that shouldn't be possible. I'm not letting you out of my sight until he's had a chance to find out what!"

Donna grumbled, but the cab had already driven away from the curb, so there was no real point in protesting at this juncture.

For five minutes they rode in silence except for Donna's occasional bouts of urging the cabbie to drive faster. Suddenly, Rose piped up, "Wasn't that the turn-in?"

"Oi! Mate! You've missed the turn!" Donna said to the driver. "Excuse me, we should've turned off back there! We're going the wrong way!"

Rose looked at the Santa hood the driver was wearing, and visions of last Christmas swam in her head. Fearing what she would find, she reached up and tugged the hood off... revealing the robot beneath. "Oh god..." she whispered.

* * *

The TARDIS phone wasn't a real phone, but an om-com hookup rendered the lack of connection invalid. The Doctor was startled out of his examinations of the TARDIS' console by the shrill ringing from outside. Violently reminded of the last time that phone had rung, he dashed outside and answered, more than a little hesitant.

"Doctor!" Rose's voice shouted. "I didn't know how else to reach you, so I just dialed the number on the TARDIS phone. I thought maybe it would..."

"Rose, what's happening?" the Doctor asked, unnerved by the near-panic in his companion's voice.

"It's those pilot-fish things! Those robots from last Christmas! We got a cab, but the driver's one of them!"

The Doctor's hearts dropped to the very bottom of his chest. "Alright, Rose, stay calm. Where are you?"


	4. Mind, Warped

**A/N-** Thank you tremendously to all of you who are leaving your thoughts and comments, particularly the fabulous **MayFairy**, who never fails to leave a review on my stories. But really, when at the time of posting, I've gotten eighty hits on JUST Chapter Three in JUST one day, and I got TWO reviews for aforementioned chapter... well, that's really frustrating to the creative process. So... pretty please? Just a few words? It takes all of twenty seconds. I hate to sound pathetic here, but... seriously, 80 hits and 2 reviews.

Again, thanks, **MayFairy**, you're a star! Also thanks to **doctorwho romance**, and you wonderful people who reviewed Chapters 1 and 2.

* * *

_"Off in the night while you live it up I'm off to sleep,_  
_Waging wars to shake the poet and the beat._  
_-Kings of Leon_

* * *

_"Lady President!"_

_Romana just had time to close her eyes and slam her palms against her closed lids before the fierce light of a nova bomb ripped across the surface of Arcadia's northern continent. Even through her palms, even from thousands of miles above the planet's surface, she still felt blinded. When she opened her eyes, a violet film hung over her field of vision. She blinked furiously, straightening to her full and considerable height._

_"Why were our light shields not up?" she demanded of the nearest officer._

_"We had no warning, Lady President," the Gallifreyan said, worry infusing her voice though her manner was professional._

_She resisted the urge to sigh. "Theirs or ours, Corporal?"_

_"Theirs, I think," the young woman responded. "The blast zone indicates it was aimed at our thirty-fourth."_

_"Get me the casualty figures as soon as they come through," she ordered. The woman saluted and turned on her heel to relay the order._

_Romana chewed as surreptitiously as she was able to on her tongue. In previous times, in earlier regenerations, she had the habit of nibbling on her lower lip when she was worried or thinking. _

_Now, though, in the midst of war, outward signs of worry were demoralizing, and she kept her features schooled. She hadn't regenerated for nothing. Young and bubbly and blonde had been fine for lazy days in Paris, for midnight explorations of Woman Wept and for punting on the Thames. A Time War, she had thought, required something a little more... stern._

_Sometimes, though, she wondered if she had made the right choice. A year ago, when she had still been confident of a swift Time Lord victory, she recalled a very good friend warning her that it would take more than intellect and command and strategy to fight this war. _

_"You can't win through sterility and chess-master stratagems," he had said. "I've tried that and failed. Did you learn nothing from the Movellans?"_

_She had dismissed him sharply. She hadn't wanted to hear it. It had been hubris, she admitted. She should have known by now that when it came to Daleks, there was only one person who really knew what they were doing. But she had so wanted to prove that the Council was wrong, that she had outgrown those childish days of clinging to the Doctor's hand on yet another trip to Earth... Nevertheless, this war was far from lost. Her pride hadn't killed them. Arcadia was still holding strong, and when the reinforcements from Gallifrey arrived, they would be golden._

_Romana winced as another terrific blast rocked the planet below._

Her eyes popped open and she was surprised to feel the concerned buzz of a TARDIS consciousness at the back of her mind. The lights winked cheerfully at her. The assault on all seventeen of her senses was too great, though, and she swam back beneath the surface again, regretfully surrendering to oblivion...

Or perhaps not so much.

_She hit the ground sharply, gravel from the walkway digging into her palms, as yet another explosion rocked the Citadel and sent her crashing from the violence of the tremors. She stayed crouched on the ground for a moment, fearful of more upheavals that might send her tumbling back down. When she determined that the Dalek assault had ceased for the moment, she got back to her feet._

_"Leela, are you alright?"_

_The warrior woman nodded, clambering to her feet as well. "I am unharmed. Quick, Lady President, we must go-"_

_Before they could move on, however, a cry behind them revealed that the Citadel guard had found them at last. Romana hissed out between her teeth. "Leela, run!" she shouted, grabbing the other woman's hand and attempting to pull her forward._

_Leela, however, remained stoic._

_"Lady President," she said firmly, eyeing the five guards bearing the Seal of Rassilon on their uniforms that were swiftly approaching, "Deposed or not, i__t is my duty to protect you. I owe you that much for failing to foresee the danger His Lordship Rassilon would pose. If we both run, they will shoot us both down on the spot."_

_Realizing what her faithful guard intended, Romana squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see the men as they drew ever nearer, almost within staser range. "Leela, no..." she implored the seemingly fearless human._

_"You are the only one who will be able to make the Doctor listen. You think he will believe me if I say we have run out of options?" Leela said. "No. He cares for my opinion, but not that much. I'll try to delay them a bit. Now go. Go!"_

_She went, sprinting away from the scene as fast as her legs could carry her, her various cuts and bruises (results of her time spent in confinement courtesy Rassilon) stinging and her muscles burning as she tried to hold herself together. There was always a chance that Leela would use her wits, rather than her dagger, or that the guards would show mercy. When she heard the hiss of stasers behind her, though, she felt tears slide unbidden down her cheeks. She wasn't able to look back..._

"LEELA!" she shrieked, sitting bolt upright, once again assaulted by the sensations of being.

* * *

"Rose, open the door!"

"What?"

"_Open the door!_"

"It's locked!"

The Doctor groaned in frustration and, transferring the twine he was using to keep the TARDIS level with the speeding taxi from his hand to his mouth, he reached into his breast pocket and whipped out the sonic screwdriver, deftly unlocking the cab door.

Rose rolled the window down.

"You've got to jump!" he told her.

Immediately, Rose pushed the door open.

"Are you _insane_?" Donna asked.

Rose glanced over her shoulder. "He hasn't let me down yet," she said to the redhead, then hurled herself out into space. The Doctor just caught her and used her forward momentum to heave her into the TARDIS. She clutched at his forearm to steady herself, and the two found themselves pressed close together in the TARDIS door. Rose smiled up at him, unable to deny that she enjoyed being so close to him.

The Doctor grinned at her, but the sound of squealing rubber made him look away. The taxi, with Donna still inside, was accelerating, getting away. "_No!_ Come on!" he growled, lurching away from her into the interior of the TARDIS. "Rose, this is going to take some fancy flying. Catch her when she jumps in, yeah?"

Rose made a noise of assent, looking miffed at the loss of contact.

He ran around the console, winding the hand crank as fast as it could go and slamming his trusty hammer down on what appeared to be every available surface.

The TARDIS accelerated, catching up to the taxi, sending loud mental complaints his direction the entire time. The Doctor watched helplessly as he ran around the console, doing his best to keep the ship steady as Rose called something he couldn't quite hear over the screech of the time rotor. Donna, just visible through the doors, shook her head wildly, but Rose held out her hand, insistent. The TARDIS chimed in warning. Another minute and her steering functions would shut down due to overheating.

"Rose, we don't have a lot of time! Hurry!" he shouted.

Rose threw him a desperate glance over her shoulder, then extended her offered hand even further. And this time, Donna took it, grabbing Rose's hand and leaping across the gap between taxi and TARDIS with surprising grace, considering she was in her wedding dress.

Immediately, the Doctor spun a dial, turning off the manual flight function in favor of dematerializing into the vortex, much to the TARDIS' relief.

He set the coordinates for a rooftop a few miles to the east, near the center of the city, and pulled them to a rocking halt. Both Rose and Donna were sent reeling, and smoke poured from the console. The TARDIS spoke her disapproval very clearly in the back of his mind, and he patted the console comfortingly.

Rose and Donna stumbled outside, and he followed them, waving a hand about wildly in a vain attempt to clear some of the smoke from the console room.

Rose let out a heavy sigh of relief, then looked up at him and let out a laugh. "Well, there we are then!" she said, still giggling in a combination of surprise and apparent relief. "Safe and sound."

At that moment, a high-pitched shriek came from the depths of the TARDIS: "LEELA! _LEEEELAAA!_"

The Doctor's face lost what little colour it had. "Romana," he said, sounding horror-struck. He turned and sprinted back into the interior of the time ship, paying no heed to the smoke and intermittent sparks still spilling from the controls.

Rose hesitated, glancing at Donna. Donna shrugged and followed the Doctor inside. Rose let out another sigh, and followed them both.

* * *

**A/N part deux-** I'm serious. Just a teensy tiny little review? Pretty please? I know I'm losing all my author cred here, begging for reviews, but I can't help it! I'm excited about this story, and it hurts me that only a teensy handful of my readers seem to share the feeling. I promise this is the one and only time I'll stoop to this pathetic level! (Also, virtual cake of the non-lie variety goes to anyone who reviews!)


	5. Delicate Matters Are Best Left For Later

**A/N-** You guys? Yeah, you're amazing. No, seriously, you are. You are a huge bunch of amazing, wonderful people and I love you all to bits! I asked for reviews, and I was expecting maybe four or five, but you guys just came out en masse to leave me the best review cache ever! Seriously, I had a really crappy day, and I opened up my inbox and there were tons of new reviews and it turned my entire day around. (Incidentally, the uplifting of my mood is probably the only reason I did as well as I did on my organic chem final... so thank you! You're helping me win at college!) I grant you all Companion Cube-approved cake!

* * *

_"I woke up to a dream passing by. _  
_It was the middle of the night._  
_Was I awake? Was I asleep? _  
_What was I doing outside?"_  
_-Madina Lake_

* * *

_"-we've got much time. The Citadel is under siege. We can hold out maybe three days, if that. We're going to lose, Doctor. Gallifrey will fall. I... I'm sorry. I failed. But it's worse than that, Doctor. It's Rassilon. I-I should have listened to you when you said bringing him back was wrong, but I just... I didn't know what else to do. I was lost and Braxiatel was being extraordinarily useless, and you're so far away... But that's not important anymore." She sighed, breaking off what could have devolved into incoherent rambling, when she simply didn't have the time for panic. "Rassilon is planning something. I don't know what. He twisted the Council against me and had me deposed. They're going to do something, and I don't trust any of them, Doctor... Please come. They're chasing me, I don't know what they'll do with me when they find me, and you're the only person I trust to do the right thing-"_

_The door crashed open and four guards blustered into the room, one of them clutching a wound in the center of his chest, just between the hearts. Romana smiled bitterly at the sight. It appeared that Leela had managed to inflict some damage before... But she couldn't think of that, or her self-control would break._

_"Transmit message," she commanded, pressing the button to terminate her voice recording. The guards fired at the communication panel, but before they could inflict any real damage, the light signaling successful transmission flickered on._

_The armed men approached and grabbed her roughly. __Romana struggled viciously against her captors; she had no real expectation of being able to free herself, but she had to at least try..._

She was briefly aware that she was screaming before she slipped under once more.

_"Do you really think you can stop this?" Rassilon sneered at her._

_"You absolute idiot, I don't even know what 'this' is!" Romana spat back, ready to release all her hissing rage and despair against the dark in this instant, when everything was out of her hands and she had nothing left but those proud words. "All I know for certain is that Daleks aren't the worst danger on Gallifrey anymore. And you've killed a woman over that! You killed my friend! You killed _Leela!_ And I bet you've killed more than her, haven't you?"_

_Rassilon's lips tightened. She wasn't sure if it was a snarl or a smile. "A necessary evil," he murmured. "I must say, you're rather more impressive than those fools sitting in the council chamber."_

_"Shall we dispense with the flattery? If you're going to kill me, I'd prefer you just get it over with."_

_Now the twisting of his lips _was_ distinguishable as a grin. A bitter, slightly crazed grin, but nevertheless... "I think I can be a bit more creative than _that_, my Lady," he said._

_The hand wearing the bluesteel glove raised. Reality tore open beneath her feet. She did not have time to scream._

But she did scream, harsh cries ripping from her throat as she convulsed, struggling futilely against the overwhelming darkness in her mind.

* * *

Donna caught up with the Doctor in some room that looked like it might be some sort of futuristic hospital ward, complete with a hysterical patient. The Doctor was clasping the wrists of a woman a few years younger than Donna herself. Dark blonde hair was matted to the woman's sweaty forehead and she continued to alternate wildly between piercing shrieks and whimpering.

After trying fruitlessly to restrain the woman's thrashing, the Doctor gave up and simply wrapped the woman up in his arms, holding her still through sheer body mass (not, she noted, that there was much of that to begin with). He leaned down close to her ear and began speaking softly but audibly in a language that sounded like none Donna had ever heard before, all consonants but somehow still managing to be soft and musical.

"Doctor? What's wrong with her?" Rose asked, arriving a few seconds after Donna.

The Doctor looked up. "It's the regeneration," he said. "Neural connections healing after all the damage she sustained in the Void. As her brain repairs itself, memories will be resurfacing. My guess is she's reliving the Time War." A haunted look came into his eyes as he glanced down at the woman in his arms. "What else could make her scream like this?"

"Time War? Regeneration? What are you lot on about?" Donna asked.

Rose rolled her eyes. "It's complicated. Don't worry about it." Donna glared at the young woman, fed up with her self-righteous attitude, but (barely) managed to refrain from snapping at her.

Meanwhile, the Doctor had returned to whispering unfamiliar words in the softly moaning woman's ear. "_Nov isiliam, akita non trepad, nov isiliam..._"

Without warning, the unconscious blonde was suddenly very conscious indeed, jerking right up out of the Doctor's grasp and letting out a terrified cry. "No!" she screamed.

The Doctor put his hands on her shoulders, trying to prevent her from hurting herself; she ripped herself away from him and slapped at his hands. "No, I won't, Rassilon, you can't m-make-!"

"Stop, Romana, stop!" he said, loudly enough to be heard over her yelling.

At the sound of the pet name, she quieted, blue eyes huge and luminous with the fringes of delirium as she focused on his face. "Doctor," she said. It wasn't a question, as one might have expected, just a statement of fact.

The right side of the Doctor's mouth twitched a little in an acknowledging half-smile. "Romanadvoratrelundar," he said, with more of the smile showing in his voice than did on his face. "It has been far too long."

"How long for you?"

"Oh, I'm not really sure. The last time I saw you must have been... just after Arcadia?" She nodded, wincing at the memories of the horrific planetfall. The Doctor's face also grew grim. "Then it must have been... five years until you called me back to Gallifrey."

"You got the transmission, then?"

The Doctor nodded. "You were right to contact me. Rassilon was..." he began, then seemed to think better of divulging too many details while the woman was still so obviously on edge. "Well, he wasn't steering the ship right, to say the least." His expression betrayed the bitterness behind the sentiment.

"And how long since then?"

"Four years."

Donna was baffled and, unable to understand what the two on the bed were gabbling about, she turned to the only viable source of explanation. "What are they on about?" she asked Rose.

Rose frowned. "Time War," she said quietly. "It's sort of hard to explain, but it was this massive war that destroyed their home planet."

"Destroyed?"

Romana had pulled back sharply from the Doctor, and her eyes were horror-struck.

"Romana, you've been through a bad regeneration. Maybe you should wait-"

The Time Lady ignored the Doctor's attempt to distract her. "Explain!" she demanded, getting to her feet and approaching Rose. The pair were exactly the same height, but Romana's way of carrying herself, and the agelessness that marked both herself and the Doctor made her seem taller than the Earth woman. "What do you mean, Gallifrey was destroyed?"

Rose glanced at the Doctor, and his face was stony. She wasn't sure whether it was directed at her or at Fate or both. "I-I'd have thought you'd know," she said, looking back at Romana. "I mean... weren't you, like, the president or something?"

"Yes, before Rassilon deposed me and exiled me to the Void! The last thing I recall of Gallifrey was... was Leela dying, and sending a message for the Doctor to return to Gallifrey, to find out what Rassilon was doing!" Romana said, frustration and fear and confusion and anger all blended together in her voice. "What happened?"

The Doctor sighed and got to his feet, walking to where the two blondes stood face to face. "It was me," he said. "The Daleks were winning, and Rassilon was planning something terrible, and the Keeper was dead... in those last few days, Gallifrey became a living hell. So I... I stole the Moment from the Tower of Rassilon and used it to rip apart the Eye of Harmony," he explained. "It was the only way to stop it all..."

Romana closed her eyes, going very, very still. She drew in a heavy breath through her nostrils, and what little colour was in her face left it abruptly. When she opened her eyes again, though, she was very calm.

"Get out," she said.

"What?" Rose replied, taken aback by the abrupt frigidity of her tone.

"I said get out. All of you."

Rose happily complied, and the Doctor reluctantly followed her, gaze lingering on the Time Lady standing in the middle of the room in her too-big robes, but there was nothing he could do. Donna hesitated even longer, halting on the verge of speech for the longest second. At last, though, when the right words wouldn't come, she turned and followed the other two, leaving Romana alone in the medical bay.

Once alone, Romana walked slowly to the nearest wall, then sank down and wrapped her arms around her curled-up legs, resting her forehead on her knees.


	6. The Reception

**A/N-** Alright, just a **_VERY IMPORTANT HEADS-UP _**before we begin here: Sometime in the next week or two, I'll be changing my FFn pen-name to match my Teaspoon and LJ accounts. It's not necessary, really, but I'm just OCD enough that the difference bothers me. I will be either Ace of Gallifrey or Ace on Gallifrey, depending on whether my preference is free for my use.

Anyway, as for this, I would have had it posted much sooner, but I had to choose between Advancing The Plot and Higher-Level Character Development. As you can see, I went with the former and tried to work in just a bit of the latter, and I'm not positive yet that this was the right choice, but we'll see... Also, for the record, it's not included, but the conversation in which Donna explained how she and Lance met still happened. I could have transcribed it (which would have solved this chapter's length problem), but frankly, I'm feeling really lazy, not to mention time-strapped since the semester has started again.

* * *

_"Have you found your way around the down and out?_  
_I know it must seem long, so long._  
_I'm still trying to keep this time from running out._  
_Head down, always moving on and on and on..."_  
_-Foo Fighters_

* * *

"Are you seriously going to just _leave_ her there?" Donna demanded when she caught up with the other two in the tilting console room.

"What?" The Doctor looked up from whatever he was fiddling with.

Donna planted her hands on her hips and _glared_ at the Doctor and Rose. "I don't know what's going on, or who you people are, but I do know that that poor girl just found out that her entire _planet_ is gone! She's obviously devastated, and you nutters are just going to leave her there to handle it all on her own? I don't think so!"

"You walked out too," Rose pointed out.

"Yeah, well, at least I'm giving it a second thought, Peroxide!"

"Now, now, let's not get testy!" the Doctor interjected hastily. "Donna, believe me, I know better than anyone what Romana's going through right now, and believe me when I say that there's nothing that can be done to help her until it really sinks in. Rose couldn't possibly know what to say-" He studiously ignored the harsh look the blonde shot his way. "-And trust me: she _really_ doesn't want to see me at the moment. Probably not for awhile. While we wait for her to sort through it, we may as well get on with figuring out what's happening with you."

Donna shot the pair a last withering look, but conceded with a sigh. She kept her posture rigid, however, as she crossed to the door, to show that she wasn't happy with this course of events.

* * *

"You had the reception without me?"

The Doctor winced internally, deeply glad that this particular diatribe was, for a change, not directed at him.

"You had the reception _without me_?" Donna's voice grew even louder and lower in pitch as her rage built, standing there in her wrinkled wedding gown. She turned to look at the Doctor and Rose, her face a curious mixture of horror-struck and furious. "_They had the reception without me!_"

"Yeah, noticed that, thanks," Rose said, crossing her arms in an unconscious defense against the violent energy buzzing in the taller woman before them.

Then the questions started, her mother and her friends and family and fiance all shouting and demanding to know what had happened. Everyone talking at once created a din that even Donna couldn't shout over. Suddenly, the redheaded bride broke down in unexpected tears, and a chorus of sympathetic noises came from the onlookers as Lance embraced her.

"Bit of a false strong front, that one," Rose murmured softly in the Doctor's ear, rolling her eyes and completely missing the conspiratorial wink Donna threw them.

* * *

After that, the party settled down and the dancing resumed, with Rose and the Doctor standing against the bar, watching Donna and Lance as they made a weak attempt at a tango. Rose glanced up at the Doctor, who was staring intently at Donna, eyes narrowed and a quizzical expression on his face.

"Doctor, what are we still doing here?" she asked. "I mean... Donna's back with her family, the TARDIS has probably settled down by now... everything's happy and good now. Can't we go?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No, not yet. There's something wrong here. We can't leave until we find out how Donna wound up on the TARDIS in the first place, and what they want from her..."

Rose glanced across the dance floor. "Could it be more Sycorax? Last time those pilot-fish things showed up, that was what was happening."

"I don't think so," he said, at least partially to himself. "It's a good thought, but this doesn't seem like their style. I mean, what's the motive? Kidnapping a woman who's apparently not special or connected or important... it doesn't make sense."

They lapsed into companionable silence for a few moments as the Doctor allowed himself to become absorbed into his own thoughts and Rose contemplated her next move.

"Well, as long as we're sticking around," Rose said coyly, "There's no harm in a bit of dancing, is there?"

The Doctor's eyes snapped to her face. "W-what?"

Rose reached down and took his hand, then began backing away onto the dance floor. In her fuzzy aqua sweater and comfy jeans, she was wildly out of place against the background of well-dressed people that filled the room, but she didn't seem to mind, and he found himself following her.

"Are... I... what?" he asked again.

She gave him a bright grin as she pulled him after her, and with a firm grip, guided his free hand to her waist.

He swallowed heavily.

"What's the matter?" she asked with a coy smirk. "It's not as though we haven't done this before."

"Nothing," he said, a little too quickly.

Feeling pleased with herself, Rose placed her free hand on his shoulder, and together they began to move across the floor in time to a quick-tempo swing-tune. Rose lost herself in the music (and made a mental note to find out who the Nobles had hired as a DJ, in case she should ever have need of one- the man clearly knew what he was doing) and in the feel of the Doctor's body so close to hers.

Two dances later, a softer waltz came drifting across the dance floor, and Rose thought it was time to step things up. She stepped closer to the Doctor and leaned in a little, lips slightly and ever-so-slightly parted, close enough that she could see his dark eyes dilate. He made a slight forward motion, coming just a little closer. She leaned forward a little more...

And suddenly, a tinkling music-box tune interrupted the sound of the song, and the Doctor looked up, shocked, as the ornaments on the Christmas trees decorating the space whirled up into the air, in a charming aerial dance that Rose suspected was about to turn deadly.

"Rose, run!" he whispered to her. "Take cover!"

"I'm not leaving you," she said stubbornly.

He let out a groan of frustration. "I will be _fine_," he said firmly. "Rose, I need you to do what I say! Now _go_!" He turned away from her and began shouting at the Nobles about the ornaments.

As Rose took the first away from the Doctor, the shiny Christmas balls increased the speed of their frenetic dance and began dive-bombing the room, exploding in showers of fire wherever they landed.

* * *

**A/N2-** Yeah, it's short. I'm sorry. I'm time-strapped, and my brain is obsessed with a DW/Phantom of the Opera crossover, starring Eight and Nyssa (because Nyssa + Phantom = PURE WONDERFUL and you know it), and when I get a plunny as insistent as this one chewing at my leg, it's kinda hard to shake it off for awhile.


End file.
